Dr. Vitale Directs Hand Specialty Conference

ONS hand and wrist surgeon Dr. Mark Vitale served as co-director with Dr. Alex Shin, director of the Mayo Clinic hand surgery fellowship, for the 2017 Mayo Clinic Hand Surgery Conference, which was held at the main campus of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN from May 11th to 13th..

Dr. Vitale and Dr. Shin coordinated and moderated several discussions, symposia and debates among the annual gathering of national hand surgery specialists.  Some topics that were discussed included wide awake hand surgery, new research into causes of carpal tunnel syndrome, advances in nerve reconstruction in the hand and upper extremity, and new methods of scapholunate ligament reconstruction of the wrist.

The conference welcomed guest keynote speaker, Dr. Peter Stern, former chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Cincinnati, and speaker Dr. Ed Athanasian, a Mayo Clinic alumni and renowned specialist in hand and upper extremity tumor reconstruction at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Dr. Vitale, a 2012 graduate of the Mayo Clinic Fellowship in Hand and Microsurgery, remarked, “This conference was a special opportunity for me to give something back to the very place where I was fortunate to train to be a hand surgeon.  It provided a valuable forum for hand surgeons from around the country to discuss advances, research and observations to further our field of expertise. I think we are all excited to move forward in building similar programs in the future.”